Say You Still Love Me Review

Say You Still Love Me by K.A. Tucker

Read: August 20, 2019 - August 22, 2019

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 stars)

Buy from Indigo and Amazon

Borrow from the Toronto Public Library

Summary:

Life is a mixed bag for Piper Calloway.

On the one hand, she’s a twenty-nine-year-old VP at her dad’s multibillion-dollar real estate development firm, and living the high single life with her two best friends in a swanky downtown penthouse. On the other hand, she’s considered a pair of sexy legs in a male-dominated world and constantly has to prove her worth. Plus, she’s stuck seeing her narcissistic ex-fiancé—a fellow VP—on the other side of her glass office wall every day.

Things get exponentially more complicated for Piper when she runs into Kyle Miller—the handsome new security guard at Calloway Group Industries, and coincidentally the first love of her life.

The guy she hasn’t seen or heard from since they were summer camp counsellors together. The guy from the wrong side of the tracks. The guy who apparently doesn’t even remember her name.

Piper may be a high-powered businesswoman now, but she soon realizes that her schoolgirl crush is not only alive but stronger than ever, and crippling her concentration. What’s more, despite Kyle’s distant attitude, she’s convinced their reunion isn’t at all coincidental, and that his feelings for her still run deep. And she’s determined to make him admit to them, no matter the consequences.

My Thoughts:

Say You Still Love Me is a beautifully crafted love story that fills you with nostalgia and causes you to reminisce on the best moments of your life that have unequivocally shaped every event that has followed. It tugs on your heartstrings and has you wanting Piper and Kyle together so much despite their circumstances and every tribulation they face.

The alternating past and present chapters was the perfect choice of format for this book. It aided in the nostalgic tone of the novel and conveys just how much that one summer at camp thirteen years ago still permeates Piper’s thoughts even in present day. Reading about the blossoming of young love within such a unique setting as a summer camp, where young adults are almost in limbo between being a kid yet feeling grown up with this newfound independence, was such an interesting experience. It most definitely made me wistful of summer camp, which just goes to show Tucker's ability to write such visceral settings. 

The romance between Piper and Kyle was the absolute sweetest; it felt like watching a teen romantic drama movie. From their first interaction to when their relationship began to grow and they experienced love for the first time, I found myself feeling every emotion. The romance was perfectly executed and even after finishing the novel, I was left feeling so emotionally connected to these characters.

While I am definitely an HEA (Happily Ever After) kind of girl, the HFN (Happy For Now) ending of this book felt very realistic to modern relationships, as both Piper and Kyle recognize and acknowledge the feelings they have for one another and desire to make their relationship work. 

This novel has undoubtedly become a five star read for me and one that I cannot wait to revisit.

~~~

Whenever books leave me with an impression and I become very emotionally attached to the story, I like to make a little playlist that reminds me of the novel every time I listen to it. These are songs I will always associate with Tucker's incredible second-chance romance, Say You Still Love Me:

1. "Cruel Summer” by Taylor Swift (This song came out around the same time I was reading Say You Still Love Me and it just reminds me of all the summer camp scenes where they would sneak around to see each other 💗).

2. "All Our Endless Love" by The Bird and the Bee (feat. Matt Berninger) (This song reminds of when they discovered they loved each other. I love how this song has a male and female singing to each other. It feels like Piper and Kyle communicating to each other and being so vulnerable after realizing how they feel at the dance). 

3. "Sanctuary" by Serena Ryder (This reminds me of how safe they felt with each other and how gentle Kyle was with Piper when they took their relationship to the next level).

4. "Nothing To See Here" by Tenille Arts (This reminds me of when they all went back to the summer camp 13 years later and it no longer looked like it used to when they were teens. There's "not much to see there" but it holds so many memories that they will cherish forever). 

love, xena